


Better Left Unsaid

by ruff_ethereal



Category: Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero
Genre: AI!Boone, AI!Sashi, Alternate Universe - Horror, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Artificial Intelligence, Blood and Violence, Chosen One!Penn, Ex-Demon Lord!Sashi, F/M, Librarian!Boone, Lovecraftian, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-13
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 04:02:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4124917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruff_ethereal/pseuds/ruff_ethereal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are just some things you never say to the people you love. Eldritch curses or words that are better left unsaid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Left Unsaid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [radiowrittenheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiowrittenheart/gifts), [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> For the Anonymous that wanted Penn and Sashi getting into a fight, and accidentally hurting Sashi badly with what he said.

An angry Sashi, he could have dealt with.

Sashi was almost always angry at anything and everything for many reasons—it was part of her source code, an irreversible factor that affected her every decision—and Penn had long learned how to deal with an angry Sashi.

But right now, the look on her face wasn't anger—it was hurt.

Betrayal. Confusion. Sadness. All three cranked up as high as the game engine could physically allow it too—and probably just a little bit more, given all the weirdness going around.

Penn saw, and just like that, his anger disappeared, replaced by horror. He stared at Sashi, eyes full of regret. She stared back at him, eyes full of tears. He hesitantly reached out to her with his hand—not the one cursed and covered with runes and Eldritch nonsense—his regular, human hand.

“Sash--”

“Is that all I ever was to you?” She asked, her voice hollow. “A means to an end? Just a tool for you get out of this hell-hole? A pawn in your little game, to be used however you please, sacrificed to so you can win?”

“Sashi I...”

Sashi sobbed, her tears pouring down her cheeks. “What!? You didn't mean it?! Because you still said it, Penn! … You still said it...”

Penn hung his head and stared at the floor. “Yeah. I did.”

Sashi turned tail and ran from the library, her footsteps thundering on the ancient hardwood floors, ramming through the double doors and disappearing down the street.

Penn raised his head, stared at the empty space where she had been, the doors open and swinging idly from the momentum.

Boone got up from his desk and walked up behind Penn. He laid a hand on his shoulder. “Dude, I really think you should go apologize. And don't take this the wrong way, but I think you should have said 'I'm sorry.' before you said 'Yeah. I did.'”

Penn sighed. “Yeah, I probably should have...” He turned to Boone. “Any clue where she might be?”

Boone shrugged and took his hand back. “Hey, you're the Lamb; if anyone knows where the important stuff is going down, it's going to be you.”

Penn looked down at his hand, the one cursed and covered fingertip to shoulder joint in all that unholy hoohah. He sighed. “Guess you're right.” He started walking out to the door. “I'll be back later, Boone.”

“'Kay. Oh, and could you close the doors on your way out? The enchantment that keeps this place safe doesn't work if they're open; and there's a _really_ gnarly draft coming in, it's gonna ruin all the books.”

Penn threw Boone a thumbs-up over his shoulder. “Got it!” He stepped out the library, and pushed the doors shut till he heard that ominous click of the mechanisms inside. The carvings on the faces of it started glowing, a monstrous dog and a fearsome cat that both looked to be warily watching and warning passersby.

He turned out to the rest of the town before him, mostly deserted, abandoned, and slowly rotting away save for a few other safe havens like the Library. He turned left, looked at the massive, swirling tear just outside the town's border gate, a rip in reality.

As usual, the thing gave him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach—and it wasn't just because it had the habit of constantly changing and shifting its visual appearance.

Penn double-checked himself—enchanted sweater vest, cursed arm, revolver in the leather holster around his waist—and started walking back into the Breach, his hand held up to shield his eyes.

* * *

You never really knew where the Breach was going to take you. They'd tried visualizing their destination, they'd tried having a strong memento of the place they wanted to go to, and Boone had tried asking it nicely, but wherever that thing spat you out, it was out of your control.

On this specific day, it did actually take Penn where he wanted to go, first try. He recovered from being exposed to the Great Nothing, shook the static and the haziness from his vision, and found out today's field trip was in the bloody, barren, and demon-infested Pandora's Chasm.

So named after the mythical box containing all the world's ills, the giant hole in the ground spawned a never-ending supply of monsters. Lesser ones, all of them, because no abomination worthy of commanding them would want to stay in such a desolate pit.

To none of Penn's surprise, Sashi was right in the thick of it, the eye of a storm of blood, body parts, and viscera. He couldn't see her for all the demons trying—and failing—to use force of numbers to overpower her, but he could tell that she had her monster claws out, the few remnants of her power and status before it was stripped from her.

Penn calmly waded into the fight, pistol in one hand felling scores of demons in a row with a single bullet, magic, controlled breaking of the rules of reality, and good old punching with the other hand. Eventually, he managed to break into the three feet of empty air and copious amounts of blood in the very heart of the carnage.

Sashi slashed a deep gash in his chest, a wound that'd hurt his soul than it would his physical form. The attack was an accident, the glare she gave him was not.

Penn reeled back for a moment—the soul couldn't get used to pain quite like the body could—before he raised his hand and shot out a barrier around them, a crackling field of energy that instinctively repelled demons, threw them off like they were made of rubber, or eradicated them by toasting them or simply making them not be.

Sashi turned to face him, claws out, looking ready to pounce him and tear his throat out. Blood covered every single part of her body, but it still couldn't hide her eyes, intense and full of rage like they usually were.

“I'm sorry.” Penn said.

Sashi growled at him. Her monster arms turned back into normal, human arms, magically clean of gore. She wiped off her mouth so he could see her scowl, the edges turned down deep, her fangs bared.

“You couldn't say that five minutes ago, huh?” She spat.

Penn smiled slightly. “Well, you know what they say, better late than never, right?”

Sashi shot him a look, dripping blood and unamused.

The barrier around them held—of this intensity and of this class of demon, it'd hold for a good half-hour yet.

Penn frowned and looked her dead in her eyes. “I'm sorry, Sashi. I shouldn't have called you”--hurt flashed through Sashi's eyes once more—“I shouldn't have called you _that,_ because I was wrong. Dead wrong.”

He warily stepped forward, careful not to slip on blood, all eyes on Sashi as she stared at him, stance relaxed and face full of confusion.

“You're more than just a fallen goddess, Sashi. You're more than just an AI in a game. You're more than a vicious, vindictive, and violent demon slaying machine.”

Penn carefully, warily put his arms on Sashi's shoulders, sticky with blood and guts. He looked down at her, she looked up at him.

He smiled. “You're my friend, Sashi. And because of that, I will never, _ever_ call you that ever again.”

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. She was warm—and that wasn't just because of all the fresh blood. Sashi stiffened for a moment, before she relaxed and buried her face into his chest, specs digging into Penn's ribs.

Sashi sniffed. “You're an _idiot,_ you know that?”

Penn smiled as he patted her on the back. “Yeah, well, love makes fools of us all.”

Sashi blinked and pulled back. “I'm sorry, what...?”

Penn blushed. “Nothing! Just another dumb saying back home...”

Sashi blushed and slowly pulled away. “Right, right…” She looked past him and to the miniature Breach that might lead back to to town. “We should… we should probably get back to the Library right now.”

“Yeah…” Penn nodded slowly. “You lead the way, I'll cover your back.”

Sashi quickly turned her human arms back into monster claws. “Sounds like a plan.” She rushed forward to Penn's back, splattering blood all over his pants and almost slipping in the puddles with every step.

Penn raised his hand, turned off the barrier, and demons started swarming the two of them.

They slashed, shot, and blasted their way back to the Breach, both intently not looking at each other.


End file.
